Spilled Milk Loteria

"The Water Pitcher" Loteria Card

"The Water Pitcher"

This is a very fitting card for me to have finished painting today because yet another heat wave is rolling through the High Desert and making life difficult and uncomfortable for everyone around here.  It reached 109 today and as luck would have it, I needed to make a trip to the DMV.  When I got there the line of people stretched out into the parking lot.  The cause was revealed to be a statewide computer system going down.  I think it was just because I'd failed to do my morning loteria divination readings.

Loteria Hat Trick!

"The Cactus" Loteria Card

 "The Cactus"

I'm not sure what stars were arranged in which patterns, but for some reason I actually found some time today to do some painting and I managed to knock out three difficult cards for the upcoming loteria deck.  Now there are those who will say that any art project has it's equal share of ups and downs. To these people, there aren't any 'hard' projects or 'fun' projects, just projects that have their difficulties and fun in different areas.
I don't believe it.  These last three cards were hard.  In fact, I'm intentionally skipping over "The Apache" and "The Musician" because I don't feel like putting my face through canvas in frustration.  But "The Cactus" came together in a way that I'm very pleased with and I don't think that I could have done anything to improve it.  It's perfect exactly how it is.
Funny, when I look at this painting I can't help but think that it's some sort of Green Man for the High Desert.  We don't really go for ivys and vines in Victorville.  If there were a reason that would inspire us to dance around a symbol of growth and fertility, it would have thorns like this green guy.  It isn't that we don't like growing and flourishing fauna.  But when you live in a place that regularly goes over 110 degrees and only has about 20 percent humidity, you take what you get.

"The Soldier" Loteria Card

"The Soldier"

I've been going around town posting fliers for the upcoming "Hot August Nights" and I am seeing a measure of support for this event.  The event will be at the church and will host a variety of local artists and entertainers.  I'm hoping that artists will be able to not only show and sell their creations, but use the opportunity to network and meet others with similar interests.  We have painters, sculptures and ceramic oriented artists around here.  Now is there time to shine!

I'll be setting up the sound equipment, but for the life of me I just can't make myself bring my guitar to this event.  I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem, but my fingers are soft and I'm out of practice with the guitar.  Not good!  The music is there, but finding an evening free to practice on a regular basis is harder than I'd have thought. Because I'm really trying to improve my guitar playing, I picked up a copy of the X360 "Rocksmith" which should give me the incentive to practice more.  I've checked it out quickly and it seems to be in working order.  I was even able to hook up my handwired chrome guitar tri-cone resonator to the machine, and it recognized it!  That shouldn't be possible, but I can't argue with success.  It plugs in and can tell when the guitar is in tune.  That's more than I can do most of the time!

"The Ladle" Loteria Card

"The Ladle"

Thank you Kirstie for all your wonderful support and guidance on this loteria project.  I'd be lost without you!

"The World" Loteria Card

"The World"
I really had to do some stretching of the original work to make this fit on the card in a pleasing manner, but when all is said and done it looks fantastic.  This is the way the card should look!  I tried not to overdo the living creatures appearing in this landscape work because the focus of the card is on the World (with a capital "W") and not the creatures that inhabit it.  What that means from a practical viewpoint is that all the breathing critters we have around us are getting the short shrift.  But I didn't invent the cards, I'm just following the deck designs as they are outlined.

I really should be posting these on the comprehensive loteria site first.  If I put them up here, I have to come back and edit the post to add the link. Ah well, too late now.  I'll be back with a link.

UPDATE:  Do your loteria readings with accuracy and style.

Guiding Star to Loteria

"The Star" Loteria Card

"The Star"

One of the best things I could have done when starting this project was to make a simple and foolproof method by which I could change the card's suits if necessary.  The icon in the upper left corner of the card is painted, as is the symbols for each suit.  The only thing that isn't paint is the number of the card.
However, when I started this project I treated the corner graphic and suits like a computer generated graphic.  The means that by choosing which layers of the Photoshop image to make visible, I can give any value to the card I want.  It's simple and elegant and a dang lifesaver by this point.
Somewhere along the way I knew that the card value for "The Spider" had been made the six of spades.  It should have been the six of hearts.  I've corrected that error so even though the image you see on this blog still lists the card as being a member of the Spades group, the printed and official deck will have it correctly appearing as a Heart.

Update:  Further explanations of the symbolism in this card has now been posted on the loteria divination site.